I think the mechanic will have a much easier time with a lift and all sorts of tools at his disposal that we'd be borrowing and stuff.

 

Yep, totally get that, Bill. The money you spend will be worth the savings in your sanity!!LOL

 

Sanity? What's that? Lol

 

Sanity is overrated. By the time the shop gets this thing done, I could have had it done alone. Been there a week - was supposed to be finished Monday, but "problems" with other cars arose. Ugh. Hesitant to send the Bull there for inspection now...

Anyhow, we'll fire this back up once I have an update. Next up...um...up?

 

This is what is being fixed...broken bolts. Picture was taken in June.



A lot of drilling out. Headers are in place - and need bolted up to the block. He went to Ford for the gaskets, because the ones that came with the headers were pretty chintzy.



And there's one removed manifold...15 yrs old, for sure.



Here's an interesting problem. Control arms rusted through - not a great picture but you can sort of see it.

 

More exhaust work! Woohoo! This was the completion of the system. I was going to go duals, but in the interest of time (i.e., could get parts here faster) with a pipe that had multiple holes in it, this is what I got:



3" pipe from the cat to the tail, single exit. The muffler is a "Cherry Bomb Pro".

A shot of black paint (high-heat variety) to give some protection from the elements:





Dry fit layout:



Needs polished, but it's even got a tip!



If I get to it in daylight, I'll post a video of what it sounds like.

Oh, and word to the wise - the muffler hurts when it hits your face. Left a nice gash above my eye and a bloody nose when it slipped and hit me. Ain't got time to bleed.

 

This is where you need an extra set of jack stands to help hold it up... just sayin

 

Yeah, gonna be buying those lol I need an extra set for when I do the new rear leafs on the pickup anyhow.

 

Has it been this long?

Well, "Workhorse" sat in the shop for 2 months. It's been a sore spot, but we've worked through it. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of what went wrong:

I was starting to have issues where I would have to hold my foot on the throttle to keep the truck running at stop signs. Also I was having idle issues and occasional shut-offs. It would start right up again though.

Eventually, the intake box (if you're familiar with these engines you know what I mean, but it's a plastic box that sits under the throttle body and etc.) actually split. That created a big vacuum leak, which left the truck stranded in front of the house. It got towed to the shop.

After much consternation and fit-throwing and all sorts of other things and an elapsed time of nearly 2 months, the intake box was replaced, new gaskets installed, a few other things replaced (misc. hoses, etc.) to make sure all the vac leaks were fixed (confirmed by the smoke test the dealer did - more on that in a minute). On top of all of that, the mechanic broke my shifter linkage in the steering column!

Almost 2 months to the day, I get the call. New shifter linkage and such is fixed, it all seems to be OK. I go to pick it up - no dice. Still won't run right. So, I insist it goes to a dealership, because it's beyond the small-shop mechanic at this point and he even admitted it.

After a little more than a week with the dealer, I find out that they need to go back into the intake. There's an intake runner gasket that either wasn't replaced or installed properly or something that was creating a leak. They fix that, and start tracing electrical again. The runner helped, but didn't solve it.

A breakout box was employed to test the wiring in the main harness. That was the final lynchpin to the whole thing. They found a wire having issues (too much resistance) in the main harness. Fixed that and BOOM! All is well again.

So, while the Bull will be first and foremost (as you can imagine, I am WAY behind now on stuff for it), I will be picking up odds and ends along the way as time and budget permit for this one also. I have to address rolling rubber (it's riding on my stock size garbage General tires from the truck at the moment) and a couple other odds and ends (the interior needs a good scrub from all the dirty feet in and out of it at the shops) immediately. Beyond that - all depends on time and budget.

 

Definitely has been a long road to recovery but at least you got the winter beast back. Now onwards to the next big project... getting the Bull ready for show time.

 

Glad you got it back... Especially since the wiring check was suggested to him a long time back. Diagrams and all...

 

I know you're right, Scott. Started prioritizing last night as to what has to get done.

Matt - the small shop did look at the electronics, but not the main harness. He was chasing the wiring to the MAF and the dealer went into the main harness for the truck with the breakout box. The small shop lacks one of those.

 

So my evil mind is plotting. I've got some 33x12.5 tires that have life left, and I wanna run 'em. I think this will work with some leveling:

 

So, decided to put the beast to work yesterday. Circumstances dictated that we hitch up an empty trailer to get it to its home...been a while, because it's done it before.



The one nice observation here in the hook-up photo is that with my plans to "level" the Expy, it won't play in too much to towing height. Like I said, the trailer was empty, but here's a shot of the whole setup. Not sure how long that trailer is, but guesstimated weight's around 2,000lb.



Went about 35 miles with the trailer in tow, in the rain. It did alright - I know I have not towed in a long time and certainly not with an SUV (my other experiences were with older 3/4 ton pickups) so there were some handling and ride things I was feeling that I was not used to.

And yes, I handed off the "back-up" duty - I figure it'd be better for me if the trailer's owner scratched his wife's car backing down the driveway

 

Damn right...your mom didn't raise no fool